CHANDIGARH: Right before her race at the Asian Games on Sunday morning, race walker Manju Rani is thinking about the podium. She has been there before, winning bronze at the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023. But before she could dream of a second Asian Games medal, she had to walk a much longer road — one that took her beyond the boundaries imposed on girls at her village in Punjab’s Mansa district.Starting from a humble home in Khaira Khurd, Manju’s journey has become an inspiration for an entire village to let its daughters dream.She was just two when she lost her mother and was raised by her grandmother. In Class VI, her physical education teacher noticed her strength and encouraged her to try handball. Impressed, he called her father and persuaded him to let her pursue sport outside the village.But when Manju and her father approached her grandmother, the answer was an emphatic no.“I come from a village where girls are not allowed to step out for education,” Manju says. “No woman had done it before, no woman would do it now.”Her father, however, took a stand.“I consider myself lucky I got what most girls only dreamed of, support. I promised my father that I won’t let him down,” she says.She left for the Sports Authority of India training centre in Badal, Muktsar district, where an athletics coach introduced her to race walking. In 2015, she finished third at the Punjab School State Games.But the road was far from easy. Back home, Manju had been expected to stay within tradition, doing household chores with her head covered in a ghunghat.Then came the financial struggle. A pair of shoes cost nearly Rs 20,000 and lasted barely a month. Supplements, diet and training expenses piled up. Her father had to mortgage their two-acre land to support her career.“This always weighed on me,” she says.Her breakthrough came with Asian Games qualification and, later, a medal that helped change her family’s fortunes. At the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023, Manju won bronze in the 35km race walk mixed team event with Ram Baboo.The Hangzhou Asian Games, originally scheduled for 2022, were postponed by a year because of Covid. The prize money helped her family buy back their land, while her job as a head constable with the Sashastra Seema Bal gave her financial stability.Now, as she eyes her second Asian Games medal, she recalls her greatest achievement, which lies beyond the stopwatch.“My success has brought a noticeable change in my village,” she says.
